An electronic cigarette is a product that is configured to heat and atomize tobacco juice and thereby provide a substitute for cigarettes to consumers.
In use of an electronic cigarette, once a user begins to smoke the electronic cigarette, the electronic cigarette generates a smoking signal. Upon receiving the smoking signal, a microprocessor of the electronic cigarette starts a process of heating and atomizing tobacco juice. Therefore, generating the smoking signal is an important step of using the electronic cigarette.
In the prior art, most electronic cigarettes generate the smoking signals by two methods. One of the two methods is to mount a smoking sensor (e.g., an inhalation sensor) in an electronic cigarette. When the electronic cigarette is smoked, the smoking sensor can sense airflow changes and generate smoking signals correspondingly. The other of the two methods is to mount a start button on an electronic cigarette. Pressing the start button can generate smoking signals.
Since the smoking sensor can automatically generate smoking signals while the start button needs manual operations, conventional electronic cigarettes usually use smoking sensors to generate smoking signals. At present, most smoking sensors used in electronic cigarettes are thin film capacitive pressure sensors. When a user smokes an electronic cigarette equipped with a thin film capacitive pressure sensor, pressures applied to two thin films of a capacitor of the thin film capacitive pressure sensor are different from each other, and the two films are deformed. Thus, a capacitance of the capacitor is changed, and the capacitance change generates a smoking signal.
However, the thin films of the thin film capacitive pressure sensors generally require very high surface cleanliness. In use, if the tobacco juice in the electronic cigarettes seeps and reaches the thin films, the thin films may malfunction because the surface cleanliness of the thin films is unable to meet the requirement of the thin films. Thus, the thin film capacitive pressure sensors may be unable to generate smoking signals normally, which may adversely affect the use of the electronic cigarettes and shorten the service life of the electronic cigarettes.